taken 'em when you can get 'em

I had a great day yesterday.

Our schedule has been so insane this year that  we are thinking about buying a second car---something I really don't want to do, but I have to admit that it would make life a lot easier, give Marc and I that tiny bit of breathing room that makes life worth living.

So, yesterday was once again full of plans. Molly had an 8am soccer game, then a birthday party in the evening. Noah also had evening plans and needed a ride (20 minutes away), and Marc was running a moonlit half-marathon in the snow.

The first pleasant surprise was that Marc took Molly to soccer (instead of going to triathlon training as usual on Saturday). That left me free to do a little yoga in the morning.

Later in the day I took Molly shopping for a gift for her friend. It was nice to have one-on-one time with her. We browsed at the bookstore, looked around in Winners and ate fro-yo.

Seeing as everyone else had evening plans and Hanaa and I were relegated to taxi and tag-along duty, I decided we should go out for dinner. She dressed up.

After Molly's party, we had to go pick up Noah. We decided to take the dog along. Noah got in the car and decided to play Hamilton on his phone, so the whole ride home was one big sing-along.

The kids went to bed, and Marc and I stayed up and watched Stranger Things (with adult beverages).

Lovely.

Today, however, I tried for a repeat of the yoga. It was the most un-peaceful 30 minutes ever. The girls fought, loudly. There were tears, name calling, recrimination, and screams.

Sigh.

the commute OR a funny thing happened on my way to or from work today

Those who know me will know that I commute to work by bicycle three times a week (less if it's raining). Cycling in Winnipeg is not a risk-free endeavour, and there have been a number of close calls. I like to catalogue the things I've found in the bike that shouldn't be there and count the number of damaged "protective" posts along the bike lane on Pembina. My pet peaves include people who pick up their kids in the bike lane outside Kelvin high-school and people who don't signal that they are making a right turn through a bike lane. I think overall things are getting better for bicycle commuters out there (and lots of people are working hard to make that happen), but there is still a long way to go. I am curious to find out what they teach in driver's ed. about driving around cyclists.

The story I want to write for you today is about none of the above. Yesterday, I biked part way to work, then loaded my bike onto the rack on the front of a bus. It was windy, and I had been sick, but I wanted to ride at least a little. The commute to work was fairly uneventful, though the bus driver didn't know his bus had a rack and gave me a weird look when I stepped in front of the bus with my bike.

When I unlocked my bike at the end of the day, I noticed that the brake cable for the rear brake was loose, and, upon further investigation, it was so loose that the rear brake did not work at all. My first instinct was panic "how will I get home"?, then paranoia "was this done on purpose? to kill me?", then suspicion "was someone trying to steal my bike?", followed  (finally) by common sense "maybe it came loose while I was unloading from the bike or rack or possibly another cyclist had parked beside me earlier, and it got caught".

Whatever the cause, I was proud that I was able to fix it by comparing it to other bicycles around me, and after about 5 minutes I was on my way. It may be time to take a course on bicycle maintenance. Maybe there's something the kids and I can do together.

Hecla 2017

This is the year we took the dog to Hecla.

Marc and I have yet to decide whether the above sentence should read "this is the FIRST year we took the dog to Hecla" or "this is the ONLY year we took the dog to Hecla".

Our dog is not well behaved. She's not aggressive, and she likes to play with other dogs, but she will bark at you if you invade her territory, and she will keep barking if she decides she doesn't like you.  So it was with great fear and trepidation that we undertook the yearly Hecla trip with the dog in tow.

The kids were all for it. "Jadie NEEDS to come", they insisted. "There is a BEACH for DOGS there." (And there is a lovely dog-friendly swimming area called Sunset Beach. It's not quite as sandy as the main---dog free---beach, but it's not bad at all.)

The first two days were bliss. We brought a short tie-out for her, and she hung out with us outside the cabin. She mostly napped on the ramp up to the cabin, and didn't seem to be bothered by the neighbours' comings and goings. We took her for long walks and introduced her to the joys of fetching a stick thrown into a lake. She actually shook off her collar and lost it in the lake, so we bought her a new one at the store in the village. It was not the greatest collar, but it seemed to work just fine.

Then our neighbours moved out, and we got new neighbours. They were very friendly and outgoing (a little too friendly and outgoing for a couple of introverts and their kids). Anyhoo, they wanted to meet the dog, and she took an immediate dislike to them (mostly to the man, but she would bark at the woman too). So every time they came outside, Jadie would bark. We were apologetic and would take the dog inside, and they were all smiles. So, we thought, this is not ideal, but we are managing.

Then one day, the dog snapped her new collar while running towards the neighbours. We immediately tackled her and took her inside where she remained until I bought her a new one in Arborg (about an hour away), as we had already purchased the last one in the village. Still, the neighbours were all smiles, and we were all apologies. We went to the main beach later (taking turns swimming with the kids and walking the dog). We saw the neighbours various places that afternoon. We all smiled and waved, and to be honest, Marc and I smiled and waved more than we are inclined to, probably just to make up for the dog.

At suppertime that evening, we came upon the solution that Jadie would stay in the cabin most of the time, so that the neighbours could come and go in peace. I was feeling good about our problem solving. It seemed to be working. We still took her on lots of walks and swims, and she was happy enough to snooze inside.

Then the park ranger arrived saying that there had been a complaint lodged against us regarding the dog. She warned us that we could be charged for excessive noise, and that we needed to keep our dog on a leash at all times. I feel petty writing this here, but I was so angry! Instead of having a conversation with us about it and try to come up with  solution, they decided the best thing to do would be to get us in trouble and hopefully kicked out. We reassured the ranger that all would be well. The dog barked at her once before we got her quiet, and we saw the ranger a couple of times over the following days, and the dog didn't make a sound (good puppy!). Suffice it to say the smiling and waving to the neighbours stopped rather abruptly.

Having the dog with us was a little limiting in some ways. We couldn't all go bike riding together, and we couldn't go to pizza night at Integrity Foods (a yearly tradition). We had been in the habit of going to Gimli for lunch on the way home, and wasn't in the cards as well. I'm hoping as she gets older and better trained, we will be able to do some of these things again.

So, plans for the fall-winter-spring include some obedience training. Plans for next summer include trying to get Jadie to ride in a canoe.

schedules

Before I was a parent, or perhaps before I was a parent of three, I was all about taking time for the things that matter, or so I thought. I looked down my nose, ever so slightly, at those over-scheduled hectic parents who were in too much of a rush to enjoy their kids or their lives.

Fast forward to today when the week is a carefully orchestrated dance to make sure everyone gets where they need to be and gets fed at regular intervals. I have to admit that I take a certain amount of pleasure in being the master scheduler, and a day that is packed full of activities, but still goes off without a hitch, gets me on a bit of a high.

Nothing wrong with that. mostly. But sometimes a tightly scheduled day does not leave room for spontaneity or emotions (and all that jazz).

Let me give you an example:

The day before we left for Saskatoon at Christmas break was a little crazy. Molly was singing with her choir in Nutcracker; we had sledding plans in the morning, and we also needed to take the dog to her spa (kennel). We came home from sledding, got dressed for the ballet, then piled into the car. In my scheduling frenzy, I had not actually told the girls that the dog would be  going to the kennel right after we got dropped off at the ballet. They found out at the worst possible moment and cried all the way to the ballet (which was supposed to be a fun outing, but now no one wanted to go.)  I had not penciled in time for the kids to say goodbye to the dog or have feelings about it. At the time, I was annoyed with the kids for wrecking this perfect piece of scheduling. How dare they have emotions? We don't have time for that! (Not that I thought about it that way, but really, that's pretty much what it amounted to.

So, I'm trying to think of some way to conclude this little entry. As always, I'm trying to do better, I guess.

2017

I am leery of New Year's resolutions, mostly, I think because I am lazy and I fear failure. But change  needs to and inevitably will happen, and I would rather play an active role in that change. For example, my health needs some attention. I am carrying too much weight and my 45-year-old body is starting to get wonky (for lack of a better word). If I just let things go as they are, change will happen, but it will not be for the better. I will likely gain more weight, and the wonky-ness will know no bounds.

So, having said that, I propose the following trends for the new year.

2017 will be a healthier year. I will plan more meals, rather than fly by the seat of my pants. There will be more salads and less cheese. I am embarking on a new yoga program that I am quite excited about. I will walk the dog.

2017 will be a year of better communication. I will express myself better and listen better as well. There will be time for conversation. I will try not to schedule the life out of days and weeks on end.

2017 will be better organized. I will schedule time for my studies and not just expect to get it done in time robbed from my family and my job. If, in fact, we do have a tight schedule, I will try to let family members know before-hand, so that they aren't surprised, reluctant, or defiant.

2017 needs some magic. I will try to notice the wonders around me. I will read a lot. I will go outside. I will call friends (well, OK, I will text friends).

So, happy new year to all of us!

Edited to add:
2017 will also be a less wasteful year I would like to cut down on food waste and waste less time on social media.